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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (192107)	7/19/2006 10:47:18 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Thanks the for the links WR.. But it's important that you go back and review the premise that Geode was presenting.. That gas was going to $4.50/gallon, which would probably represent over $100/barrel oil. Upon such a premise, all of those methods of mining oil from Tar Sands, Oil Shale, or the use of Sythfuels and bio-diesel become economically viable long-term, IMO. Right now the energy companies are hesitant to invest heavily in such extraction processes because of the sense that oil prices are just too high at the moment, what with the Mid-East risk premium factored in by at least $20/barrel. But they are getting more and more interested. Furthermore, I would not believe that corn would be the most efficient feedstock for bio-diesel. I think the algae approach is more efficient from what I've read, thus far. It also has the prospects of not being a seasonable commodity since it would not depend upon large quantities of crop land. Micro algaes present the best option for producing biodiesel in quantities sufficient to completely replace petroleum. While traditional crops have yields of around 50-150 gallons of biodiesel per acre per year, algaes can yield 5,000-20,000 gallons per acre per year. Algaes grow best off of waste streams . agricultural, animal, or human. Some other studies have looked into designing raceway algae ponds to be fed by agricultural or animal waste. We are now pursuing funding to investigate redesigning wastewater treatment plants to use raceway algae ponds as the primary treatment phase . with the dual goal of treating the waste and growing algae for biodiesel extraction. We also plan to investigate the possibility of using the algae mush (what is left after extracting the oil) as a fertilizer. unh.edu csmonitor.com Also, I was just out in the Western US a few weeks ago, and the whole area seemed to be abuzz over the possibility of using manure from dairies and cattle ranching to produce methane as an augmentation to natural gas. They seem to believe that the economics are there finally, and they are facing increasing pressures from environmentalists to do something with the manure (there is only so large a market for commercial compost) because of the smell. Hawk